BROOKVILLE BLASTS BROCKWAY: Defending AA Champs Sent Packing

CLARION UNIVERSITY - Brockway head coach Ray Reckner looked over at the fence that separated Memorial Stadium's turf field and the path to the Brockway locker room. "It won't be a long walk," he said. "But that doesn't mean it's not going to be easy."

Saturday night's District 9 Class AA Semi-final loss to Brookville was Reckner's 224th and final game as the Brockway head coach. The Rovers (6-5), the defending Distirct 9 Class AA Champions, lost 39-20 to the Brookville Blue Raiders Saturday night at Clarion University's Memorial Stadium.

The Brookville win moves the Blue Raiders' record to 10-1 and earns them a berth in the District 9 Class AA Championship game, where Brookville will tussle with Karns City. The Gremlins (10-1), defeated arch-rival Moniteau 32-29 to advance to next Saturday's title game.

The game seemed like it would be a track meet as the Raiders and Rovers combined for 27 points in the first quarter.

"We felt good at that point," Reckner said. "Brookville played well and made big plays."

But Brookville, which churned out 467 yards of offense, built a commanding 32-8 lead in the third quarter and never looked back. In fact, 5 of Brookville's 6 touchdowns were plays which were 25 yards or longer, including 3 touchdowns of 45 yards or more.

"When you can sustain drives, things open up," said Blue Raider head coach Chris Dworek.

It seemed things were always open for Brookville. Max Kutz finished the game with 176 yards and 2 TDs on just 15 carries. Joe Galbraith added 77 yards on 11 carries, and quarterback Shane Heschke threw for 161 yards and 3 TDs, while adding 46 yards on the ground.

Brockway's offense didn't have near the success of the Raiders, only passing for 51 yards. The Rovers' running game yielded 168 yards, but since Brockway was playing from behind the entire way, it seemed the Raider defense was content to let the Rovers just drain precious time off the clock.

Brockway's biggest play came courtesy of Dillon Park, who picked up a Raider kickoff and raced 97 yards to the end zone to trim the Brookville lead to 32-14. Park also added 79 rushing yards on 15 carries.

Even though his Rovers lost, Reckner still had a positive outlook.

"Our kids played hard all year," he said. "It's quite a rebound to finish at 6-5 after starting 2-4. Nobody gave us a chance to make the playoffs let alone have a winning record."

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